Upgraded armor (to whatever you can manage) two assaults with run and gun (plasma weaponry), 2 snipers (plasma weaponry also), a heavy weapons user and freakin' hero of a medic was my recipe for success in the first base mission.... actually that was pretty much my recipe for success for every mission... i can't stress enough the upgraded armor thing though... as soon as you can get decent/improved armor on your troops do so!!

Actually on that note, I prioritized my research early on as such.1st priority: Armor2nd priority: Weaponry (for troops only, I didn't even bother with the mobile weapon platform unit types until my troops were all decently equipped)3rd priority: anything that had to do with craft technology

This allowed me to keep my troops alive, advancing in rank well enough to make latter missions far more manageable.

Another important strategy I found helped me sail through without too much trouble was making an excess of satelites long before actually seeing a need for them. First time through I didn't do this and, believe me, there will be instances were you WILL need them without enough time to produce and launch them..... next thing you know missions pop up around the globe and you find yourself essentially gritting your teeth deciding which country you don't want to withdraw from the council...

Kylde, does upgraded armor take over the usual stuff equipped or does it count as a backpack item?

New armor takes over originally equipped armor. The only exception that takes a backpack item spot (that I recall) is the vest that is available very early on. The vest sucks but you can stack the defense bonus from using the vest WITH the armor.... If memory serves the vest only adds like +4 health or something which isn't too helpful later, but earlier on in conjuction with the first armor upgrades it can be pretty useful.

If there was an upgrade to the vest that takes a backpack spot I never got it.

Reviving the dead topic, but anyone else excited for the new expansion? Best thing announced at Gamescom so far for me! A new class, more maps, more units, hopefully a bunch of fixes that the game needs. This game will probably keep my Xbox alive for a few months after new console launch.

Not even a year yet, so its ripe for expanding :D Its called Enemy Within, its standalone for 40 bucks on consoles, and 30 on PC. It adds a lot of new features like mechs, genetic enhancements, a new resource called Meld, 40 new maps to add to the 80 already in the game, this includes UFO's in cities now, which is something I wanted to see in the original.

Overall it looks like Firaxis is taking the quality of expansions of Civilization and putting it in an XCOM. Day one buy for me.

....fix the encounter system and this might just be my most anticipated game of the year.

Seriously, I loved EU, but I can't stand the way you encounter enemies and found some horrible glitches that got men killed on my iron man playthrough (literally had a cyperdisk spawn on top of me and another time my sniper blew up his own piece of cover and died on the next turn from a critical across the fucking map).